Scottish housebuilder to pay LBTT for first-time buyers as Sturgeon reacts to Chancellor’s budget move

Housebuilder Mactaggart & Mickel Homes has announced today that they are responding to the Government’s announcement on stamp duty by following suit to help first-time buyers get on the housing ladder.

In his budget announcement on Wednesday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said he would exempt first time buyers from stamp duty on the first £300,000 of the purchase price.

In Scotland, the devolved equivalent of stamp duty, land and buildings transaction tax (LBTT), would impose a £4,600 bill on a purchase of £300,000.

From today, Mactaggart & Mickel Homes, a fourth-generation Scottish family firm with over 92 years of design and construction expertise with developments in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Glasgow, Ayrshire and the Clyde coast, says it will pay the LBTT for first-time buyers purchasing homes priced at up to £300,000 until the end of April 2018.

Director Joanne Casey said: “Although the Scottish budget won’t be revealed until mid-December, we have taken the decision to act immediately and pay the LBTT for first-time buyers on homes priced up to £300,000. This will help more first-time buyers get a foot on the property ladder, by saving them up to £4,600 when buying a Mactaggart & Mickel home.”

The firm’s announcement comes a day after a First Minister’s Questions session at which Nicola Sturgeon hinted that she would not copy the Chancellor’s move outright, but that alternative option was being examined.

She told MSPs: “As we finalise our budget in the next couple of weeks we will consider whether or not it is appropriate to give any further assistance to first time buyers.”

She indicated a tax break on purchases of up to £175,000 would help an equivalent level of first time buyers in Scotland as the £300,000 figure would in England.

The current threshold for paying LBTT is £145,000.